Friday 1 October 2021

THE BLESSING OF A LIMINAL DAY by Penny Dolan

                                                                    

 Last Friday,  I had a gift: a day's space when everything stopped.

 On Tuesday, I had driven, at rather short notice, down south.  On Wednesday I had attended the funeral of a long-lived but complicated relative  Thank you for your kind thoughts but but no sympathies needed.

 On Thursday, I visited a once-known house. I was able to walk through rooms and  into the garden I remembered  from a decade and more before. I could go all the way down to the huge oak tree that still stood by the gate that led to the field beyond and remember who and what what I wanted to remember.

                                    Quercus velutina - Wikipedia

 I collected a few old photographs and personal memorabilia, had coffee with my even-further-down-south brother and called in on an old friend who lives in the village.  All done, and a blessed sense of completion and closure. Friday was to be another, slightly nostalgic visit.

However, as I queued in my car going north through the Blackwall Tunnel, the first radio rumblings began. Something about a possible lack of petrol? Ah. Well, yes. By evening the rumblings were louder. We were not to panic.

Blackwall Tunnel - Wikipedia

Friday arrived. Definitely don't panic! I had petrol for Saturday's drive back to Yorkshire, complete with A1M traffic jams, but that was all.

So I opted out of the intended visit - but what was I to do with the unexpectedly free day ahead? My complicated WIP was at home, so I was out of reach of its mutterings and grumblings and the horrid loopholes in its latest version.                         

Public Domain images 438 victorian woman writing jornal

I was also in a space that wasn't mine so nothing in the house or garden was shouting at me to Be Sorted Out or Done.                           

                                     Dishwashing - Wikipedia                                                                                                

Instead I spent an idle day sitting around, doing almost nothing, enjoying the garden, the sunlight on the pond, mulling over a few of the memories stirred by the funeral, and walking around the neighbourhood for a while, admiring the last of the roses. Being, I suppose, in the moment. 

 

                                Free Stock Photo 120-pond_plants4592.jpg | freeimageslive

What exactly was the day? Not lazy. Not useless.  It felt as if an awkward thing was over and the new pattern had not quite arrived. It was a day "between" - and suddenly a more lovely word popped into my head; 

"Liminal."

A photographer had used this term, describing his image of a misty beach, where the water and the land met, neither one thing nor the other. 

                 Free Stock Photo 11824 Long sandy tropical beach ...

I'd heard the word used for the narrow semi-wild strip of land that lay between the built-upon areas and the farmland not far from my own home: a  place waiting and not waiting for another turn of the planning rules, the habitat of half-hidden wildlife and determined plants. There had even been a book written about it.

                                     New book 'Common Ground' is out in May

 

That Friday was almost like time suspended, a day when all I could do was accept that knowledge, wait out the liminal hours, and enjoy - without guilt or anxiety - the beauty of that moment.  I could think, I could imagine I could be.

Liminal, that's what the day was.

It was a welcome reminder to take time out now and then, to value the creative moments where energies can rest before the whatever-next starts to happen.

 

  * * * * *

After I signed this post off a few hours ago, I thought about picking up my latest project tomorrow. Suddenly, the act of writing seemed to fit in with this concept:  work done when one is neither totally in this world nor entirely in the world of one's own imagination.

Yes, that's it, don't you think? 

Writing itself a liminal activity?

 

Penny Dolan

@pennydolan1

ps Written with apologies to and sympathy for all those people who did have serious trouble or sadness or were in danger or had appointments cancelled as a result of the lack of petrol.

 

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7 comments:

Joan Lennon said...

Thanks for this, Penny!

Andrew Preston said...

Know what you mean about the difficulties and problems with petrol supplies.

Yesterday I called in at my local 8 miles away Sainsburys's supermarket for petrol. They had none, and the barricades were up. I drove on to the nearby Asda. They did have petrol, so I filled up there. Job done.  As I made to get back into my car, a  gust of wind caught the driver's door, and pulled it out of my grip. The door clunked very audibly against the side of the car at the adjacent row of pumps.

I've never found supermarket dings to be problems in my life. I'm generally really careful. Also, with my previous car, an old Peugeot 406 that really looked like it had been in lots of fights ( before my ownership ), everybody kept well clear. But no one expects to be attacked by a Yaris. The other driver was distinctly annoyed. "This is the second time in 2 days.".

I do feel that if it wasn't for Brexit, Boris Johnson, government incompetence, and Asda being stingy with space ( like their polo shirts ), this might not have happened...

Anne Booth said...

This was a lovely post. Thank you.

Penny Dolan said...

I do like that revenge of the Yaris, Andrew. Shouldn't underestimate, perhaps?

Seriously I do feel so sorry for people. There are some idiots out there sparring and that's not good, but so many people are just managing their lives as best they can and fill up according to the circumstances they'll find themselves in over the few days ahead of them. I'd agree with you on a lot ofvthat list too!

Joan and Anne, thank you for rwading my post and for your kind words.

Rowena House said...

Lovely post. It's as if we can't take liminal moments, they must be given. So glad you enjoyed yours.

Steve Gladwin said...

Really enjoyed this, Penny and your pictures. When you come to read 'Land in MInd' soon, you'll find it's full of liminal spaces!

Lynne Benton said...

Lovely post, Penny - and so glad you had your liminal space!